NAGPUR: State discom MSEDCL, which is unable to recover Rs 40,000 crore from consumers, is not able to pay the generation companies. Its dues towards its sister concern Mahagenco have crossed Rs 10,000 crore. Hence, the generation company is facing difficulty in day to day operations. Mahagenco director (finance) Santosh Amberkar said there was delay in payments to coal companies and furnace oil suppliers. “However, we manage to pay the bills. We are not having problems in arranging working capital,” he said. Sources in Mahagenco said MSEDCL had not paid for power over the past six years. “It first pays the bills of private generators and then to NTPC. We come last in the sequence,” an official said. Mahagenco has total installed capacity of 13,427 MW and is the largest supplier of power to MSEDCL. The discom supplies power to 2.53 crore consumers in the state except Mumbai. In its financial statement for the year 2016-17, the generation company had shown a total trade receivable of Rs 10,671 crore. It had further stated MSEDCL had not paid delayed payment charge (DPC) to the tune of Rs 5,247 crore, outstanding as on March 31, 2017. Some of Mahagenco’s power plants are lying idle as funds are not available to run them. Due to Rs 10,000 crore dues, the company had been forced to borrow working capital to pay for coal and other dues. The interest on borrowings has cast further burden on financials of the company.

Meanwhile, Mahagenco has filed a petition in Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) to be allowed to trade its excess power in the open market. This is 15% of the total power generated. Mahagenco officials hope sale of this power will generate much needed revenue for the company. MSEDCL is unable to recover dues from its consumers mainly due to political opposition. Of the Rs 40,000 crore some Rs 24,000 crore are owed by farmers. Whenever MSEDCL disconnects farmers, the political parties take to streets and government stops the drive. A lot of arrears are stuck up in court cases while others are owed by permanently disconnected (PD) consumers.